A loud awakening 3/5

Sipho believed in waiting for the right time to have children, and this was most certainly not it . . . was it?

“She asked me to look after her little boy tomorrow afternoon. She has to go into town and she might be there quite a while.

I’ll have him all to myself for hours. It will be wonderful!”

Humming again, Wame dished up Sipho’s supper. While he ate, she chatted on and on about what she planned to do with the little boy: take him to the swings at the park and then play ball with him on the grass.

And if it were a hot day, she might put on the sprinkler in their tiny garden and let him run under it.

“His mother says he loves water. So that will be fun for him, don’t you think, Sipho?

Oh and guess what his name is? Gift! Isn’t that a beautiful name for a child?”

Sipho was relieved that his wife seemed happy. Maybe babysitting could become a regular thing? Maybe Wame could look after this little boy, Gift, whenever his mother had other things to attend to? That would be great, thought Sipho. That would be much better than having a baby of their own right now.

After all, they were both very young to face the heavy responsibilities of parenthood – especially Wame, who was six years younger than him. Yes, this babysitting might turn out to be the best thing for them.

Wame would get a much clearer idea of how much hard work babies and little children really are. Not to mention how much money was involved. When Sipho thought about it, it made his head spin and his mouth go dry.

Prams and cots and baby clothes! And nappies – especially nappies.

He’d noticed at a supermarket recently just how much a pack of disposable nappies actually cost. And there were only twelve of them in the pack. From what he understood about babies, a pack of twelve nappies wouldn’t see them through 24 hours.

No, Sipho decided, now that Wame was so cheerful there was definitely no need to bring up the topic of starting a family. It could be left for some time in the future – the distant future.

ON FRIDAY evening, Sipho walked up the street to his home feeling very happy. His boss had been impressed with his work today and said he was a valuable member of the team. And Wame had spent all afternoon with little Gift from next door, so she was probably happy too.

Yes, thought Sipho as he walked up to his front door, this was the start of a great weekend.

But when he opened the door he heard the most terrible sound.

To be continued……..

November 2017

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